Some time ago Rabbi Stephen S. Wise said to a lady from the pulpit: "How do you expect a man to preach while you are completing your toilet in one of the front rows? What would you think of me if I were to stand here trimming my finger-nails as I talked to you. If that is what you come into the house of God for, you had better stay away. It is bad enough to start putting on your hats and coats before the benediction is completed, as many of you do, but to make up your faces during worship is going a bit too far. If it ever happens again I shall certainly ask the lady to leave the hall."
This utterance bears all indications of coming from the bottom of the heart. It invites speculation on how many times rabbis have wanted to say that much and more and just what misdemeanours have inspired them. Rabbi M. N. A. C. Cohen, writing in the Bnai Brith Messenger of Los Angeles, bemoans the fact that irregularities of behaviour in synagogue happen in the best of families and among people whose manners are irreproachable in less holy places. He makes the charge that the Christian acts with greater raverence and propriety irV his church no matter how humble it is, than the Jew does in his synagogue or temple. There seems to be no leptimate escape from the truth of that statement. �
The Christian, big or little, is solemn in church. He may sleep, but at least he doesn't act up. The Jew comes to shul (synagogue or temple) to see, be seen and (say it in a whisper) to schmoos a bit, as well as to attend divine service. Men have been known to smoke in shul if they w7anted to, and children have slid up and down the floors and shot paper wads at each other and their elders. Even the most strenuous defender of the faithful must admit that no Christian child ever brought a "genllte" fish sandwich and some pickles to church Ybm Kippur day. And, all things being equal, Jewish women go to shul to show their clothes more than do Christian women. Anyway, what profiteth a woman to have clothes and not to appear in them where they have a high visibility? If they take her mind off prayer, well, that is one of the many attendant circumstances born of the limitations of human nature.
Then take the Jewish hail and farewell. Before either one, the restrained nod and smile exchanged between Christians grows colourless, pale. The Jewish greeting takes time. It is hearty and voluble even between partners, and usually includes exchange of information on a variety of subjects: health, prosperity, the children, the horses. Something might be done about it for synagogue use and the comfort of rabbis except that it is so time-honoured�like the sacred tradition of running in and out of shuRl dozen times on the Day of Atonement, and lolling on the sidewalk in front of it. Probably the only thing for a rabbi to do after the saying of kaddish is to immerse himself quickly in more solemnity, for that should be a trying time. Kaddish means tears and even kaddish tears often mean repairs these days to a lady's toilet. It may have been just such an occasion that got Rabbi Wise into the papers with those biting remarks. Rabbi Cohen calls it all "house of worship manners."
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Dr. Avery W. Skinner, of the New York State Department of Education, recently said that the Jewish boy in New York City has a zeal for study that puts to shame the boy of native American parentage. Referring to the complacency of students in high school these days, Dr. Skinner said that too many seem satisfied with a passing grade, an attitude marked among the American-born.
It is generally regarded as true that foreign-born children, or children of foreigners, outstrip the native-born in their studies. The Jewish student, thirsting for an education, eyes alight, arms out at the elbows, is an old established type. However, there is another side to the picture, and it concerns the declining zeal for knowledge among the second and third generations of those who once strove desperately. A type vastly different from the starving student has developed, different and equally significant This newer figure is that of the Jewish pseud o-student, the college loafer. While there still may be many Jewish students willing to slave and starve and steep oo park benches to get an education, there are also many Jewish students in high schools and colleges occupied at nothing better than taking up room.
For the Jewish parent of any means has come to regard^ a college education for his son or daughter as a habit, a matter of course frven tt> the point oi forcing an unwilling one to be exposed to muck m
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education, at least. A boy often has nothing to take him to university except the parent's desire and a poor or indifferent record at the preparatory school. Well-to-do parents, too indulgent with things and trimmings and trappings, acquiesce too readily in a course which they know means little more than four years of fun at best, and four years of noise, loafing, drinking, rowdyizing and some times worse.
The complacency which Dr. Skinner notes in high school children oi the native-born American is not their monopoly. It is highly communicable among the children of those who have come away from the obstacles cocimort to the hxuai grant and his family. Complacenc) and in<Mereoce tcrwarg^educatioci are becoming rooted asaoqg the
out as ovpo* UsBity or nwwmi. tlx.
